Brian Sabean on Lincecum: “Timmy’s going to be a Giant” in 2013

I just asked Brian Sabean about the Giants moving forward, in particular Tim Lincecum’s future status with the organization.

“Timmy’s going to be a Giant,” said Sabean, reminding that his contract has one year remaining.

On whether he sees Lincecum improving in next year’s rotation. Sabean said, “I think so. He set the bar so high. We set the bar so high with him. He’s got to learn what it’s like to be knocked down. He hasn’t experienced anything like this. College, minor leagues, major leagues. It’ll be interesting how he turns this around. He knows what he has to do.”

Is it a situation similar to 2010 when Lincecum turned around his game from August to September?

“No, this is more of a function of willing to accept the delivery he’s going to use to be a successful pitcher. He’s going to have to pitch more to contact. No matter what his strikeout ratio is, he’s not going to miss as many at-bats.”

So it’s more about mechanics than bulking up?

“A lot of it is the delivery. The better the delivery, the better the arm action, the better the ability to make quality pitches with pitch to pitch control.”

Sabean said Lincecum will be a Giant next year on a day this item appeared in the Boston Globe: Lincecum “will be available in trade, and it will be interesting to see who bites on the two-time Cy Young winner. The Giants insist his problems this season were strictly mechanical, but opposing teams wonder why his usual 96-mile-per-hour fastball was around 92 most of the season, and why his first-inning problems (28 runs) were the worst in baseball. Lincecum, 28, is due $22 million in the final year of his contract. Would someone take the gamble?”

Lincecum has one year remaining on his two-year, $40.5 million contract.